Photograph
by Valkyrie Elysia
Summary: When Taiyang Xiao Long had gotten a picture of his daughters' team, he's stuck with an incredibly powerful case of Deja vu.


**V.E.: (Staring at her list of past reviews) Honestly, how long is it going to take to get some of these things updated? I mean, I understand on how things come and go as a writer, but honestly it's just so boring waiting around for something new.**

 **Well, I guess I might as well get some writing in before this semester really gets crazy. Well, I said I would do another one shot in the RWBY universe so I might as well get on that.**

 **Once again, I'm taking the point of view of Taiyang, a character we honestly don't know that much about. I hope, I'll do him in justice when he finally gets an extended appearance in RWBY canon (probably sometime in Volume 4 or beyond). Expect this to be a bit short.**

 **Quote: "Photography to me is catching a moment which is passing, and which is true."- Jacques-Henri Lartigue**

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When Taiyang Xiao Long had gotten a picture of his daughters' team, he had almost stained it with a spit take of his morning coffee and had to do a double take of what he had just seen.

He had heard that his daughters and had ended up on the same team (something that set his mind at ease, knowing that the two would be able to look out for each other) and that their partners were also girls (which made him even more relieved, he would take as long as he could get before having to deal with boys and the like). He had gotten a few letter from the girls, telling him a little bit about them. Weiss could be "a bit of a meanie" in Ruby's words, but otherwise a really good person. Yang said that Blake was quieter and fond of reading (the way his daughter said that made him certain there was a bit more to that).

But then came this last letter from the girls, complete with a group photo in Beacon's courtyard.

 _By_ _Oum_ , that photo. The term _Déjà vu_ was a massive understatement for this.

It took him a full minute of staring at the photo to make sure that it was really Team RWBY (which had to be very confusing team name) he was looking at.

Not Team STRQ.

But Oum damn it, _it was just too familiar_.

His purple eyes went to the center, where his daughters were. He first focused on Yang, who was center right. Most of his eldest daughter's physical characteristics leaned towards Raven's (which was something that brought him a lot of mixed feelings), but her coloring and her position in the photograph made it clear she was his daughter. She seemed to dominate the picture with her wide smile aimed at the camera, grabbing the other three together for the photo. It gave such a clear display of her personality that mirrored his own during his days at school; the tank of the group that packed one hell of a punch, the joker and the flirt that tried to get people to smile, even though they had more than a few dark thoughts and secrets behind that persona.

Next, his eyes went to Ruby with her trademark red cloak at the center left. She also smiled, though she seemed a little bit more reserved than Yang (this seemed to have been a spur of the moment picture). Naturally, anyone who would have seen her would have immediately remarked how the girl was a mirror image of her mother at her age. But in all honesty, he didn't see Summer when he looked at Ruby here, he saw Qrow. He saw his teammate before the alcohol and the regret; the weapons enthusiast, the one who leap into head first into danger a lot before they learned from it, the one who knew right from the beginning what being a Huntsman/Huntress was all about. He wondered whether the girls had sent a picture to Qrow. Would he see the same things he did?

Taiyang's eyes wandered right to where Yang's partner Blake was. The black haired girl with the matching bow seemed a little bit uncomfortable being drawn into the picture, as if not being used to doing such things until recently. However, she seemed relaxed with Yang's touch as she gave a small smile for the camera. She was Raven, _so Raven_. It wasn't so much the looks (though the black hair was noticeable), but the personality he saw in the photo. This was a girl who looked uncomfortable in the light because she was used to fighting in the shadows, someone who had a firm grounding in what they believed in, someone who knew how to run away and leave with little to no explanation. He wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry that this girl and Yang were partners.

Finally, his eyes went left to the last team member Weiss Schnee. Having heard more than a few words from Qrow regarding her older sister Winter, he wasn't surprised to see a noticeable resemblance between the two. The scarred heiress looked very proper and seemed even more uncomfortable about this situation than Blake, but that seemed to be more over the physical contact rather than picture taking. Outside of the color white, there didn't seem to be any real similarities to Summer. That was until he got a closer look at the girl's eyes.

 _Loneliness._ That was the pure emotion he got from this young woman of white. It was the same look he had caught in Summer's eyes whenever she thought no one was looking. Summer Rose was Team STRQ's leader and always put the team first, but he realized that that also mean she had to put aside her own fears and problems for the good of the team. Even fighting in a group and side by side with others, a part of the woman in the white hood always stood alone. Summer had never talked much about herself before she came to Beacon (even with Qrow, who while curious and concerned never forced the subject), but Taiyang got the impression it wasn't all that good.

Then again, none of them were completely innocent _normal_ teenagers entering Beacon. Almost every person entering the Four Academies had their own reasons for doing so, their own secrets and scars in pursuit of the goal of becoming a Huntsman/Huntress. Some were just more obvious than others.

Taiyang glanced back at the photo, reclining his chair before noticing the clock. _Shoot_. His first class was supposed to start in ten minutes.

He immediately got out of his seat, setting the picture back on the desk. The blonde was just about to rush out the door before he turned back and got one glance of Team RWBY, smiling as if wishing him well.

He smiled at it sadly before turning back around and going out the door, knowing he would return to look at the photo more when the day was done.

 _Girls, life isn't a fairy tale, but I hope for your sakes that your story has a much happier ending than ours._

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 **V.E.: Another relatively short one shot. Glad I got it done before my first full week of college classes.**

 **Order of photo from left to right: Weiss, Ruby, Yang, Blake.**

 **The idea for this story came when I saw the picture of Team STRQ in the Volume 3 opening. Everything here is pure speculation and if it turns out to be wrong later down the line, I won't mind.**

 **Thanks for reading this and please make sure to review. If I write here again, it probably won't be for a while. Have a good day!**


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